Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics

The word “phonetics” is derived from the Greek “ (fo:ne:) meaning sound, voice. In modern times phonetics is often defined as “ the science of speech sounds considered as elements of language”.

It should be emphasized that phonetics is not a separate, independent science. It is a branch of linguistics, like the other branches, such as lexicology and grammar. However, phonetics, being a branch of linguistics, occupies a peculiar position. On the one hand, it is quite independent, and develops according to its own laws. Today the sphere of phonetics is wider and deeper than ever before. The objects of phonetic investigation are the following: phonemes and their distribution in words, their mutual adaptation, stress, syllable formation, intonation, the relation between oral and written speech and a number of other problems.

On the other hand, phonetics is closely connected with a number of other sciences, such as physics (or rather acoustics), biology, physiology and others. The more phonetics develops, the more various branches of science become involved in the field of phonetic investigation.

Phonetics is an essential part of language because it gives language a definite form; — the vocabulary and grammar of a language can function only when the language has phonetic form.

Hence, grammar and vocabulary depend on phonetics; they cannot exist outside of phonetics, because all lexical and grammatical phenomena are expressed phonetically. Thus, although phonetics serves as a means of expressing grammatical and lexical phenom­ena, yet it has laws of its own which are independent of grammar and vocabulary. The following examples will illustrate this:

1. Words are expressed in phonetic form, and can be analysed into sounds. One word may differ from another in one sound only, e. g. big [bIg], bag [bxg], bog [bog].

2. The three main forms of the irregular verbs in English, which are the result of a long historical development of the English language, are also expressed in phonetic form, and differ from one another
because of vowel alternations -in the root:

rise — rose — risen [ai || ou || i]; swim — swam — swum [i || x || A]

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